Victory over second-placed St George Illawarra tomorrow will secure the One New Zealand Warriors’ first-ever New South Wales Cup minor premiership with four games to play.
The David Tangata-Toa coached side is on 40 points, seven clear of the Dragons going into the round 22 encounter at WIN Stadium in Wollongong (3.10pm kick-off local time; 5.10pm NZT).
If the Warriors extend their all-comers club record of consecutive wins to 15, they’ll have an unassailable nine-point lead at the top of the ladder to lock up a title the club has never won before following three second place regular season finishes in 2011, 2017 and 2023.
It will be only the fourth time a Warriors side has clinched a minor premiership in any grade. The others were in the NRL in 2002, the one-off Super League under-19 competition in 1997 and the now-defunct National Youth Championship in 2011. In each of those three instances the Warriors went on to reach their grand finals but only the NYC side won the title.
The Warriors’ charge to the NSW Cup minor premiership continued when they spanked South Sydney 68-6 last week to register their 14th straight victory and their 18th in 19 starts so far.
Their winning run started against the Dragons with a 40-12 success at Go Media Stadium in mid-April but they will be tested to complete the double this week with their lineup affected by players required to step up due to the NRL squad’s injury toll.
They will again have a young halves paring steering them around the field.
Halfback Jett Cleary will be playing just his sixth NSW Cup match and standoff Caleb Laiman his 13th with most of his previous games involving limited minutes off the bench.
The Dragons fell to a big 16-40 loss to the Newtown Jets last week but will be boosted by returning to their home ground tomorrow.